Naveed Somani
I'm a monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) specialist with over 15 years' experience in the third sector. I set up RLI Consulting in 2020, built around three principles: Reflect, Learn, and Improve.
Working as a MEL lead inside organisations, I kept seeing the same pattern: well-designed systems that fell out of use, not because they were wrong, but because no one had the time or capacity to keep them going. Going freelance let me focus on exactly that problem, working across many organisations to build MEL that's realistic to sustain, not just impressive on paper.
I believe evaluation should be proportionate to the work it looks at, not a burden that takes time away from the work itself. I look at how change actually happens and what a programme contributes to it, rather than inflating claims of impact. Good MEL should be useful to the people doing the work, not just an exercise for funders. And people with direct and lived experience of the issue a programme addresses should have a real say in how it's designed, measured, and interpreted.
In practice, this means I work with approaches and methods including Theory of Change, Contribution Analysis, Outcome Harvesting and Most Significant Change, choosing the approach that fits the scale and nature of the work rather than defaulting to the same method every time. I use both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, participatory workshops and statistical analysis, and I design MEL frameworks and systems that organisations can keep running after I've gone. I also deliver MEL training, covering theory of change design, indicators, and data collection and analysis.
My work spans human rights, housing, migration, climate, economic development, education, and access to justice. I've worked with organisations including Amnesty International UK, Liberty, the Clean Air Fund, Global Witness, Oxford Policy Management, and the Access to Justice Foundation, amongst others.
I hold a BA in Law from the University of Oxford and a Master's in International Studies from SOAS, University of London. A full list of qualifications and achievements can be found below.